Something Like Thunder Read Online Free PDF Page A

you.”
    “I don’t need—”
    Heath raised an eyebrow. “It’s that, or you don’t work out at all.”
    Nathaniel clamped down on his anger. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll ask him for help next time. Or maybe you can help me, Mom. I’ve seen your yoga muscles.”
    Star appeared somewhat placated by this, but only just. “We should buy one of those resistance machines instead. You know, the kind that use elastic bands instead of weights? They must be safer.”
    Dwight snorted.
    Nathaniel nearly joined him. “What we’ve got is fine.”
    His mother looked him over. “How much bigger do you plan on getting? If you were trying out for the football team or something I would understand. Wait, is there some guy you’re trying to impress?”
    “No,” Nathaniel said with a nervous chuckle. “I don’t have time for stuff like that.” Then he realized that he should have said yes. His parents didn’t care that he was gay. His father had gay coworkers, and back in California, his mother had more than one gay friend. Even Dwight hadn’t cared when Nathaniel first came out, never needing a specific reason to hate him. So pretending he was steadily building muscles in the hope of winning some imaginary guy would have been the most sensible excuse. Now his efforts to beef up had surely raised suspicion, and it wasn’t his mother who concerned him.
    He focused on his food, refusing to look up from the plate. When he finally did, his fears were confirmed. Dwight was considering him with fresh malice. You want to challenge me? his expression seemed to say. You think you can be the bigger man?
    Nathaniel hid any reaction, making polite conversation with his parents and declining the offer of more food, even though he would have gladly eaten more. Maybe going without would be enough to quell Dwight’s suspicions. Probably not.
    Nathaniel was first to leave the table, heading down the hall to take a shower and listening for the easily-picked lock to pop, for the knob of the bathroom door to turn. Dwight had never attacked him there before, but he wasn’t exactly predictable. Once Nathaniel was dressed, he drove to the learning center. It wasn’t open yet, so he sat in his car and allowed himself to feel all the emotions that Dwight was so good at stirring up. Then he flipped an inner switch to silence the fear and anxiety. By the time he saw the manager unlocking the door, he felt normal again. At least as normal as he ever did. He watched the clock on the dashboard, waiting until he was due to begin work before he went inside.
    Working on Saturdays was always the least fun. Nathaniel might be glad to get away from home, but most of the learning center students hated having to do school work on the weekend. Saturdays tended to draw a different crowd, many coming in only on this day. This made effective tutoring more difficult, but Nathaniel was up for the challenge. He soon saw one familiar face. Caesar was quietly sitting at a computer, waiting to be noticed, still bashful even though they had worked together all week.
    Nathaniel went to join him, asking for a status update. “Geometry test,” he said.
    “Ninety-seven percent,” Caesar mumbled.
    Nathaniel nodded as he pulled up a chair and sat next to him. “Spanish quiz?”
    “I got an eighty-nine.”
    “Not bad considering I’ve never been good at foreign languages. My friend Rebecca, she’s practically fluent. You should work with her next time you have a language test coming up.”
    Caesar didn’t say anything. He seemed… uncomfortable? Then he turned, his chair creaking as he looked toward the front door. An older man who shared Caesar’s bronze skin tone stood there talking with the manager. His hair was graying at the temples, his mustache the color of cigarette ash, the polo shirt and slacks not quite casual enough for a Saturday morning. Nathaniel was instantly reminded of his own father. Both men had a middle-management sort of vibe. At the moment,